"
Real change starts with being honest -- the system
in Washington is rigged and our government is broken.
It's rigged by greedy corporate powers to protect corporate
profits. It's rigged by the very wealthy to ensure they
become even wealthier. At the end of the day, it's rigged
by all those who benefit from the established order of
things. For them, more of the same means more money and
more power. They'll do anything they can to keep things
just the way they are -- not for the country, but for
themselves.
The system is] controlled by big corporations, the
lobbyists they hire to protect their bottom line and the
politicians who curry their favor and carry their water.
And it's perpetuated by a media that too often fawns
over the establishment, but fails to seriously cover
the challenges we face or the solutions being proposed.
This is the game of American politics and in this game,
the interests of regular Americans don't stand a chance. "
It's a structural argument, and Edwards didn't pull
punches in calling out his fellow Democrats, saying:
"We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans
with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping
the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington
insiders of the other." The rhetoric was a clear signal
that Edwards is going to beat the drums of reform as a
contrast to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the
primaries.
The most striking aspect of Edwards' speech was his
implicit argument that class still exists. For years,
both parties have obscured the divisions that are so
prominent in modern American society, painting a
picture of a country in which we're all part of an
entrepreneurial class with more or less similar interests
- a key ingredient in the false "center" to which
politicians and Beltway pundits kow-tow. "Let me tell
you one thing I have learned from my experience,"
Edwards said last week. "You cannot deal with them
on their terms. You cannot play by their rules, sit
at their table, or give them a seat at yours.
They will not give up their power -- you have to
take it from them."
Real change starts with being honest -- the system
in Washington is rigged and our government is broken.
It's rigged by greedy corporate powers to protect corporate
profits. It's rigged by the very wealthy to ensure they
become even wealthier. At the end of the day, it's rigged
by all those who benefit from the established order of
things. For them, more of the same means more money and
more power. They'll do anything they can to keep things
just the way they are -- not for the country, but for
themselves.
The system is] controlled by big corporations, the
lobbyists they hire to protect their bottom line and the
politicians who curry their favor and carry their water.
And it's perpetuated by a media that too often fawns
over the establishment, but fails to seriously cover
the challenges we face or the solutions being proposed.
This is the game of American politics and in this game,
the interests of regular Americans don't stand a chance. "
It's a structural argument, and Edwards didn't pull
punches in calling out his fellow Democrats, saying:
"We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans
with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping
the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington
insiders of the other." The rhetoric was a clear signal
that Edwards is going to beat the drums of reform as a
contrast to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the
primaries.
The most striking aspect of Edwards' speech was his
implicit argument that class still exists. For years,
both parties have obscured the divisions that are so
prominent in modern American society, painting a
picture of a country in which we're all part of an
entrepreneurial class with more or less similar interests
- a key ingredient in the false "center" to which
politicians and Beltway pundits kow-tow. "Let me tell
you one thing I have learned from my experience,"
Edwards said last week. "You cannot deal with them
on their terms. You cannot play by their rules, sit
at their table, or give them a seat at yours.
They will not give up their power -- you have to
take it from them."
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